If wishes were peanuts...
If elephants could fly....
Actually, I'm not sure I agree that LeMond was never a celebrity. Like LA he was on Sports Illustrated and was Sportsman of the Year. The Tour got a whole lot more coverage during his years than it had before or after (until LA started winning) and he has a successful bike business even if it was bought out by Trek.
Younger riders don't know him, but then younger riders don't know what downtube shifters are either. In Europe cycling is a sport that lives on its tradition/history. That doesn't appear true in the US. European fans would never have forgotten someone like Major Taylor, wheras in the US the current stars are the only ones to have ever turned a crank. I'm not sure I'm complaining, that's just the way it is. Baseball seems to be the only sport where the past stars still feature in current conversations.
The test will be how public the retired LA stays (assuming he wants to). My guess is that in the US he'll disappear pretty quickly. A retired cyclist won't have the marketing power someone like a retired Michael Jordan does. That's just the American market.
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“Life is not one damned thing after another. Life is one damned thing over and over.”
Edna St. Vincent Millay